I want to install a flood light (motion sensor, manual override, 3 lights) under the soffit in my back yard just off the porch.

anyone have experience doing this and have any advice? Any recommendations on electricians in Pearland?


I understand how to tie into the current porch light so they both run off the same switch. However, I crawled up in the attic and can barely get to where the wiring would need to go. Even with fish tape it would be a pain in the rear to get to it. the heat is a killer as well, even in the morning (should have done this in January). I also think I would need one of those long flex drills to punch through into the attic to get the new wire from the current porch light box up into the attic and down to the new light location.

here is a diagram of what I'm wanting to do.





some articles I read:
http://www.handymanhowto.com/2009/08/02/how-to-install-a-floodlight-part-1/

http://www.hammerzone.com/archives/elect/outdoor/flood_lights/under_eaves.htm

Good News, never underestimate the ability to fish wires by just buying a stick of 1/2" pvc.

The trick is, often, to just take down a whole piece of the soffit to get access. The pvc is flexible enough to then reach in over the top plate and far enough into the attic to find the other end.

Bad news, wiring the Logical.OR. you want--lights on if motion-dected or switch thrown is counter-intuitive at best. You need to rewire the existing switch as a three-pole, and put the separate motion detection switch head on the jumper legs from the switch. You are setting up a logical .OR. and that is not how the stock m/d fixtures are set up.

This is also inconvenient for many customers as they want a specific "porch light" to be on a specific switch, and now you are wiring them all together.

Having done this before, it's almost better to have two separate lighting answers. One for on-demand--throw the switch, lights come on. And another for lights go on if something suspicious is out there. This will have a slight complication in that most will want a floodlight "defeat" switch for when they are out in the yard or on the porch for normal purposes. That's pretty easy to do--just needs wiring that way (and a reminder to turn the switch to ON afterwards).

capn, thanks for the advice.

I'm thinking of just disconnecting the porch light anyway. The builders put it right next to the door. It attracts all the bugs so when you open the door they all fly inside. It is really annoying.

I may put in the secondary switch as suggested to have the porch light on it's own control.

Hey, helpful I can do.

Recessed lights are often better at entries, as there is not a "point" source of light for bugs to home in on. Will not eliminate bugs, but can reduce them.

Other important thing about outdoor lighting is that you need only a tenth as much light as you would indoors (and often, quite less than that).

If I illuminate your kitchen at 0.5-1 footcandle at the floor, you'd call it "nightlight dim" (good enough to get water from the fridge or the like). But, 0.5-1 FC in an outdoor kitchen can be a nice illumination level. This has to do with the way human eyes adapt to darkness.

This is why the low-voltage lighting systems work so well. It's amazing to see just how bright a 7½W tree-spot can be. Almost all tree leaves are lighter on the bottom, which lets a person "bounce" quite a lot of light from them. Which makes for a great way to supply a soft, general illumination for outdoor living areas.

That reduced light signature is not only more comfortable for our eyes, it's less of a beacon to pests' eyes.

Now, if only there was an economical way to put in outdoor fans (only takes about 2-3mph of wind to prevent a mosquito from lighting upon a person--this is better than misters, propane traps and the like). Lest that sound a huge amount of wind, it's only about 150-250 cfm.

I added some lantern looking sconces to a friend's garage a while back. Used a motion sensor/photocell that would come on to full bright intially at dusk, and then drop to about half after an adjustable, preset time. The lights stayed at half until they drove up/cat ran by/dude in hamburgler mask and striped shirt walked up with a crow bar and empty laundry sack. There was an option for a switch control where you could force the lights to stay at full bright, or shut them off completely. Want to say it was about a $25 controller.

Also put motion lights on the side of my bro and SIL's house at their gate. Switch controlled two heads to light the playground area with the motion/photocell controlling the head aimed at the gate. There's a number of options on how you can set it up. The hard(er) part is getting wire from the existing switch location to where you want the new fixture. Once that's done, there's a handful of things you can do at the switch and fixture.